Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest (2025)

Brewer's Notes: Our authentic Oktoberfest is a collaboration with Störtebeker, an award-winning German brewer internationally recognized for quality and innovation.

This modern Festbier leans into a rich, smooth malt backbone with notes of fresh-baked bread and honey. Traditional German hops provide balanced bitterness and herbal-spicy aroma, rounding out the crisp, clean finish. Prost!

Malts: Bonlander, Caramel Munich, Pale, Pilsner
Hops: Opal, Perle, Spalter Select, Tradition

Beer Advocate

Tasting Notes

Sept. 2025

I have been tasting this festbier, Weihenstephaner Festbier, Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen, and Tucher Festbier. While I like this beer, I like it the least of the four. It lacks complexity.

Rating: 5 glasses

Aug. 2025: A wonderful festbier. A nice sweetness balanced by hops. Easy to drink and I want more.

Rating: 5.5 glasses

Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen

Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen is an easy-drinking and flavorful Märzen. It is currently my favorite beer of the style. It combines a robust flavor with quaffability. 

Brewer's Notes: Forbidden as it was to brew in summer, a stronger beer – the Märzen – was brewed earlier in March. It would finally be served at the Oktoberfest, under the “Heaven of Bavaria”. We have returned once again to the age-old recipe and recreated that gloriously smooth, honey-coloured piece of history from times gone by. And all is brewed with due reverence to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516.

BeerAdvocate

Tasting Notes
Sept. 2025: I have been tasting this festbier, Weihenstephaner Festbier, Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest (2025), and Tucher Festbier. I like this beer and Tucher Festbier the best. It is malty (but not too much), flavorful, quaffable, easy-drinking, and complex.

Rating: 6 glasses

Aug. 2025: A delightful Oktoberfest. An Uber lager.

September 2023: I have been drinking this beer for a while but failed to write a review. The more I drink it, the more I like it. It is a titch less malty and more quaffable than Great Lakes. Has more bready malts and hops than a "lager" beer.

Rating = 5.5 glasses

Lagunitas Maximus Colossal IPA

Maximus is a fine example of a double IPA.

Beeradvocate: Our Colossal take on a Double IPA, full of Simcoe, Mosaic, CTZ, Cascade & Centennial hops balanced against tons of rich malted barley.

There is a tide in the affairs of big IPAs which posits that a flood of hops leads to a fortune in liquid. In our XXV+ years of brewing big IPAs we've learned this to be mostly true, with one big caveat: balance is everything. We believe Maximus to be exactly that. Et tu?

60.5 IBU

Brewer's notes: In the grand coliseum of ales, one stands supreme: Behold Maximus, First of His Name, the King of Hops—unrivaled in might, unmatched in boldness. Be warned: only those brave enough to honor the liquid legend shall taste the glory…For the hop heads!

From the very first sip, Maximus does not whisper but roars with colossal impact. It’s full-bodied boldness thunders with unstoppable force of flavor of pine and citrus to create a smooth finish that echoes through all of eternity. With commanding hops of Simcoe, Cascade, and Centennial, Maximus reigns triumphant in boldness, yet delivers a wave of silken malted wheat and barley richness. The hop gods hath decreed it, the sippers hath worshiped it: All hail Maximus, King of Hops…For the hop heads!

Tasting Notes
20250916: Maximus is a solid double IPA - good but not great. Nice hops balanced by sweetness. It is not too sweet but I wanted more hops. 

Rating: 4.5 glasses